Correct colon uses?

Question

Hi. Please tell me if the colons are correctly used in the following questions?

1. Which, in your opinion, is hard to make: draw a certain person's portrait or make a written portrait?

2. When someone approaches you, what is the thing you are likely to consider first: speech, phsiognomy, or others?

Sambda · Accepted Answer

The usage of the colon is correct in both cases. However sentence (1) sounds very clumsy to me. Better as:

Which, in your opinion, is harder to do: drawing a certain person's portrait or making a written portrait?

BarbaraPA · Answer

sambdaThe usage of the colon is correct in both cases. However sentence (1) sounds very clumsy to me. Better as: Which, in your opinion, is harder to do: drawing a certain person's portrait or making a written portrait?

I agree that "make" needs to be eliminated or replaced with "do" but I would have said one of these:

Which... is harder: drawing... or making...?

or

Which... is harder to do: draw... or make... ?

I wouldn't use the "harder to do" with the -ing form.

(I also would never say "make a written portrait" but instead "describe the person in words" or something like that.)

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Thank you. Would you consider the following questions with colons correct? I think for the questions below, commas would be correct.

1. Which person is your friend: the man in the Hawaiian shirt or the man with a blue sports cap?

2. Which person is your friend: the person on the right or the person on the left?

3. Which person is your friend: the man or woman?

Mister Micawber · Answer

Yes, commas all around. For less formal writing, I would use an m-dash:

Which person is your friend – the man or woman?

Anonymous · Answer

Hi. Thank you. I think, if I am not mistaken, it is somewhat reasonable to use a semicolon in a situation where we would normally use a comma but might look awakard due to the existence of an internal comma or commas, or the complicity (?) of the structure for the part involved. (I am not sure what I wrote previously reflect what I wanted to say, though.)

For example, as to the number 1 sentence I wrote:

1. Which person is your friend: the man in the Hawaiian shirt or the man with a blue sports cap?

Would you find these semicolon uses correct? Thank you for your anticipated help.

Which person is your friend; the man in the Hawaiian shirt, gulping down the water or the man with a blue sports cap, standing still?

Which person is your friend; the man in the Hawaiian shirt, looked to be in his early thirties or the man with a blue sports cap, looked to be in his late twenties?

Mister Micawber · Answer

No, you cannot use a semicolon in that manner. A semicolon is permissible between items in a list when the individual items have internal commas. Your sentences are not lists. In all other cases, a semicolon separates two independent clauses.

Correct colon uses?

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